In this week’s episode of Skin & Within, host Clare Gray is joined by Janice Clyne – nutritionist, gut health expert, and affectionately known as the "Queen of Fermentation". Together, they explore the often-overlooked power of fermented foods and their transformative impact on health and wellbeing.
Claire, founder of Ermana Natural Skincare and passionate advocate for holistic living, sets the stage for a deep dive into the microbiome. Janice brings decades of knowledge, explaining how fermentation isn’t about food going off – it’s a controlled process that boosts the nutritional value of everyday ingredients through the action of beneficial bacteria.
From tangy sauerkraut to effervescent kefir, Janice walks us through the world of cultured foods and their proven benefits – supporting digestion, enhancing immunity, and even improving mood and mental clarity. One key takeaway? Diversity is everything. A rich, balanced gut microbiome plays a vital role in regulating everything from hormones to cravings.
Janice shares her own gut health journey and breaks down the science in a way that’s easy to grasp and genuinely inspiring. She also offers practical tips to get started – think fermented carrot kraut, tomato salsa, and kimchi you can make at home. The emphasis is on simplicity, accessibility, and using the right salt ratios to keep your ferments thriving.
Importantly, the conversation challenges our reliance on ultra-processed foods. Janice makes a compelling case for returning to more traditional ways of eating – seasonal, home-prepared, and rooted in nature. Her passion for foraging and local ingredients is infectious, and she encourages us all to reconnect with where our food comes from.
This episode is a must-listen for anyone curious about the gut-skin connection, natural health, or wanting to introduce small but powerful changes to their daily routine. Clare and Janice offer a refreshing, grounded perspective on how we can all glow from the inside out.
🎧 Listen now to Episode 5 of Skin & Within: “Unlocking Gut Health: Exploring Fermented Foods and the Microbiome with Janice Clyne" – available on all major platforms.
Check out Janice's website - Be Nourished by Nature
TRANSCRIPT:
Skin and Within helps you find your inner glow with insights from wellness experts
>> Claire Gray: The Big Light presents. Welcome to Skin and Within, where I help you find your inner glow with insights from wellness experts. I'm Clare Gray, founder of Ermana Natural Skincare and passionate wellness warrior. In this series, I'm exploring how to find radiance that's not just skin deep, but leads to a healthier, happier you from the inside out. In today's episode, we're going to discuss gut health and fermented food and drinks. I've just had a fantastic conversation with Janice Clyne, the queen of fermentation. We talked about how easy it is to enjoy the incredible health benefits of fermented food and drinks. Listen out for how an ex US President inspired Janice and how to turn garden weeds and nettles into delectable treats.
Janice is the queen of fermentation. And today I'm gonna have to set the timer
Let's go. Well, thank you so much, Janice for coming along today. For those of you that don't know Janice, Janice is the queen of fermentation. And today I'm gonna have to set the timer because I get the feeling that Janice and I could talk all day long about fermentation. So, thank you and welcome.
>> Janice Clyne: Thank you very much for having me. You're right, I could totally talk all day about fermentation. So you'll have to just tell me when to shut up.
>> Claire Gray: Who cares?
Janice is fascinated with fermentation and has a PhD in food science
So, Janice, for those listeners that don't know what fermentation is, can you explain to us the basics of fermentation?
>> Janice Clyne: Yeah, well, what fermentation is, it's when foods and drinks are changed by the action of microbes. But I don't mean like when you just leave milk out and it goes sour. Fermentation is controlled action. So what we're actually doing is harnessing the right bacteria to change foods and drinks into better versions of what they are, what they are originally.
>> Claire Gray: And what can you tell us a bit about your background and how you get into feminist?
>> Janice Clyne: Yeah, well, I'm actually a food scientist. Background. many years ago I worked in food science for about 10 years. I've got a, degree in agricultural chemistry. So that was my first degree. Always been interested in food. I've got four kids. So, I was actually doing a PhD. Ah, in whiskey maturation actually. But I chucked it when I discovered I was pregnant. So it's quite old fashioned. I like to, you know, grow stuff, make things from scratch. But what actually got me into all the fermentation stuff was in 2011 I did, I, studied macrobiotics, which means big life. So that was a different way of eating. And that really brought home to me the link between health and the food that we were eating because it introduced things like miso and tempeh, sauerkraut, sourdough, kombucha, all these things I hadn't actually heard of up until that point. So. So once I actually discovered all the health benefits, I decided to start exploring all of them. And then once I started, I just couldn't stop. So that's why I'm totally obsessed by the world of fermentation.
>> Claire Gray: Okay, so the ones you mentioned there was kefir tempeh. Tempeh is soy based.
>> Janice Clyne: Tempeh is. Yeah, you can actually make tempeh out of anything. It's a, grain, but it's rhizopus. It's more of a mould than a bacteria, but it's a good one. What it does is it breaks everything down, within the. If you're using lentils or soybeans, it breaks everything down so everything is easier to digest. And, that's very much the point with anything that's fermented is literally pre digested because the bacteria have broken down all the hard stuff. And essentially what happens is all the good stuff is enhanced by an absolute mile and all the bad stuff just buggers off. It really is quite magical.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah, it is amazing, isn't it? So you're getting, it's doing all the hard work for you beforehand, so you're getting all the benefits without your tummy or your gut having to do a lot of the hard work.
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely.
So back to kefir tempeh. What else is a common fermented food then
>> Claire Gray: So back to kefir tempeh. What else is a common fermented food then?
>> Janice Clyne: Would you say all the other ferments? Well, yogurt's fermented. Most people know yoghurt. So kefir is like yoghurt and steroids. Yogurt's got maybe two or three strains of probiotics. Kefir that you buy in the shops has got maybe 15. You make your own. It's got upwards of 40 different strains of beneficial bacteria and yeast. That's what I do. I always make my own in the traditional way with the actual grains. Because what we tend to do is think we can improve everything and we really can't. So I'm a bit ogging back to the traditional processes and being nourished by nature, doing things the way that they're actually meant to be done for our health, not for profit and money.
>> Claire Gray: Yes, quite right.
Every aspect of our health comes back to our gut, says Janice
And can you give me an example of just some of the health benefits that you can get from fermented foods?
>> Janice Clyne: Oh, well, I wouldn't know where to start, to be honest, because what fermented foods do is they don't actually cure things. I have to say that when I came across kombucha at first, what piqued my interest was I had read an article from Ronald Reagan. At the time he had stomach cancer and he attributed drinking kombucha to curing his stomach cancer. And I thought, oh, that's a bit of a bold claim, but it did interest me. So then I went and started researching it and understanding that there's actually so many benefits. And the reason that there are benefits when you eat fermented foods. Fermented foods, first up there are pre digested, but they're packed full of these probiotic bacteria and yeasts that make up our, gut microbiome. Right. We've got trillions of these gut bacteria that are in our gut. Everyone's different. Our gut, you know, a microbiome is as unique as our fingerprints. But everybody has a bit of a balance between good and bad. And these guys just, you know, work so hard on our behalf doing all sorts of things, producing neurotransmitters. It's our gut microbes that can communicate with our immune system. they tell our brain what to do, our cravings come from our gut, B vitamins are produced in the gut. All sorts of things are going on. And the more and more research, and it's the hottest topic in research, it really is. And there's thousands of articles are getting published, you know, of scientific articles that are getting published all the time with more and more evidence to say that, every aspect of our health comes back to our gut. So it's almost like if you get a good balance in your gut, your body then is in balance and your body can then heal itself. So as I said, that's why, okay, you see, eat fermented foods, do they cure this, that or the next thing maybe not, but what they will do is they will give you back the balance so that your body will work the way that it's meant to. And we are all meant to be healthy and well, we're not meant to be living with all the chronic disease. Exactly.
>> Claire Gray: So it almost gives you the strength for your body to fight off anything, anything that might attack any illnesses or diseases that come its way.
>> Janice Clyne: Yeah, absolutely right. And the key thing for having a good gut microbiome is diversity. you know, diversity is resilience. Then that means if you've got more of these species of bacteria, more of the good guys and less of the bad guys. You've got resilience for your health. So, for example, I'm never ill. I never get ill. I did the Zoe. Have you heard of the Zoe?
>> Claire Gray: Yeah, I've done it as well. I was going to ask about the.
>> Janice Clyne: Zoe thing, and again, just for a matter of interest. And the gut microbiome Test, they measure 15 good gut microbes that they know are beneficial and 15 bad ones that they know are bad. I didn't even have a trace of any of the bad ones. Amazing. I scored 96 out of 100.
>> Claire Gray: I got 97.
>> Janice Clyne: Oh, you beat me, Janice.
>> Claire Gray: I'm secretly.
>> Janice Clyne: But, the thing is a, gut microbiome as well. It's not a static thing.
>> Claire Gray: Sure.
>> Janice Clyne: So if you feel, well, that's an example that, okay, everything is okay. But we can always improve where we're at.
>> Claire Gray: Of course.
>> Janice Clyne: And it's so interesting because if you have, too many of the bad guys, you just end up. You'll never be well. Because all they want to do is to send messages to your brain to tell you go and eat sugar because that's your food source. And that cycle just continues. And everybody knows if you've got a sweet tooth, you'd eat one sugary thing, you'll just want another one. That's your gut microbes.
>> Claire Gray: Sure.
>> Janice Clyne: It's not that you don't have any willpower.
>> Claire Gray: So when you say you need as much diversity as possible, how do you get that? How do you get that?
>> Janice Clyne: You get that through eating a diet with loads of different plants and vegetables in it. You only get. The food source for probiotic bacteria is fibre. Right. You only get fibre from plants. If your diet is heavy in animal products, you don't get any. Fibre from eggs, meat, chicken, cheese, dairy, you don't get any. Although there are benefits to eating those things too. But in terms of gut diversity, it's all about fibre.
>> Claire Gray: Okay?
>> Janice Clyne: And that's the most important thing in the diet. And as. Even though our diet has changed and so many people are eating ultra processed foods all the time, there's no fibre. So there's no. There's no building blocks for your wee bacteria to do all the really cool things that they're there to do.
>> Claire Gray: So let me just get that again. So you need the fibre for your.
>> Janice Clyne: Gut bacteria, use that as a fuel. And then what they do is they break the fibre down and they produce all sorts of bioactive compounds. The most important one of them is something called butyrate. It's a short chain fatty acid. And what that does is it literally fights inflammation everywhere in the body. Everywhere, anywhere. Seals your gut lining, heals your gut lining. And again, a lot of people these days have leaky gut.
>> Claire Gray: Yep, yep, I had that.
>> Janice Clyne: I believed I had that. And that's a big problem because what happens there is you'll get food particles going from your gut into your bloodstream. They shouldn't be there. Your immune system's thinking, what, what is that? It shouldn't be there. So your immune cells launch an attack and before you know it, you've got an autoimmune disease.
>> Claire Gray: So you believe, and this is what I love, that one of the things you talk about is having an internal pharmacy. You believe that you could, you can cure yourself pretty much from a lot of these things.
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely. Because the thing is, if you have a balanced gut microbes biome, with all these wee guys all doing their jobs, they can do everything that drugs can do without all the negative side effects. As I said, all our neurotransmitters, 90% produced in our gut, the fighting inflammation.
The number of autoimmune diseases are through the roof
And every single chronic disease has inflammation at its core. The number of autoimmune diseases are through the roof. Cancer. It's now one in two people that are getting diagnosed in their lifetime. Now there has to be something wrong when the figures are getting to that level. And again, that is, a disease of your immune system isn't working properly. If your immune system is functioning properly, you shouldn't have cells growing where they shouldn't be. And as I've said, it's your wee gut microbes that instruct your immune cells what to do. So if you don't have a balanced gut microbiome and you don't have all these good guys that are doing all the good stuff, then, yeah, it, just probably means your immune system isn't functioning properly.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah, so, yeah, totally agree.
Ultra processed foods are further damaging our gut microbiome, you say
And you touched on there as well, ultra processed foods and that. I mean, I believe that's what's doing most of the damage. Are you in agreement there?
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely. Because they're not real foods. They are absolutely packed full of things that are actually further, further damaging our gut microbiome. And what has happened over the years, the diversity of the gut microbiome has become less and less and less as people eat more ultra processed foods that are not actual food. And a lot of what they're using is, emulsifiers as one example. A lot of people now can't eat gluten. A lot of people can't Eat bread. You know, and bread's been sustaining us since biblical times. Yes.
>> Claire Gray: This is what I don't understand. The gluten and the gluten free thing is like a huge marketing.
>> Janice Clyne: That's what I was going to say. Because here is the thing that a lot of people that have an issue with eating bread and think they have a problem with gluten, go then and buy all the really expensive gluten free bread, cakes, cookies, they are all loaded with emulsifiers. Right. Which have been scientifically proven to damage your gut lining. Geez. So if you think that you've got an issue with gluten and you just go and buy gluten free, you're going to further damage your gut. Because what emulsifiers do is your gut lining is a really sensitive single cell structure. It emulsifies your gut lining.
>> Claire Gray: So how would people. Right, so if somebody thinks they're gluten tolerant, what's the first thing you think they should do?
>> Janice Clyne: Well, again, cut out all the, I mean, all the processed stuff, all the gluten free. There are many things that are actually naturally gluten free, you know, which are actually really delicious and they're fine. It's all the processed stuff that's making them ill. That's what's making people ill. And it's not just the emulsifiers, it's the artificial sweeteners, it's all the trans fats, it's the amount of sugar that gets added to things. And there are literally thousands of chemicals that get added to food. And nobody knows what the cumulative effect of all of them is. But I can guarantee you none of it's good.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah. Yep.
Bread versus sourdough is perfect example of that is bread versus supermarket
And you, you, you talked about as well, like, you know, making things yourself, then you can kind of, you know, like they used to do. So perfect example of that is bread versus sourdough. So the bread we get in the supermarket, which is utter crap versus sourdough. Can you explain? Because I know you do some amazing sourdough workshops. Can you talk to us about the process of making sourdough and why that's good for us?
>> Janice Clyne: Yeah, Well, I do know a lot about bread because when I was doing my research, my research sign stuff at the uni, I worked with Warburton's, the bread people for a couple of years in the sensory of their bread. So they explained to me that in the 60s, they changed the whole bread making process from the original one they were doing with allowing the bread to prove slowly and everything. And it was all to make more money and get more bread through faster. So what they did was changed it to the Chorleywood bread making process. So what they had to do was add, add more yeast because they weren't allowing the time, add more salt because there was no flavour development, no time for flavour development. They were adding all sorts of additives, preservatives, enzyme additives. So that's what you end up. That's supermarket bread today. It's got about 20 ingredients in it. There is no nutrition in it. it's not real food. It's like cotton wool. If you take a slice of bread and you squash it, it just goes into absolute mush. As opposed to sourdough, which is original bread. Sourdough has got three ingredients, although I do add other stuff to mine, but all good stuff, you know, seeds and things. Sourdough bread has got three ingredients. Flour, water and salt. I only use the best quality flour. Wheat and oats in this country get sprayed with glyphosate, which is a toxic weed if you imagine most people are eating wheat at every single meal. And oats, which are a healthy thing. But if you can afford to buy gluten free oats, definitely, go for the organic oats, sorry, because they're way better. But to go back to sourdough, if you're using the best quality ingredients, you're using your flour, it's just water and salt. I use Himalayan salt, which is better than just table salt, which is just pure sodium and nothing else. And, sourdough is just the way the original bread was made. Ah, the bacteria. In a sourdough starter, they start to do all sorts of cool stuff. While the dough is actually proving they break down a lot of the gluten, they also break down something called phytic acid that you get in a lot of grains. Phytic acid binds to all the minerals. So all the iron and the zinc and the calcium and the magnesium, all the stuff that our body needs is usually bound to phytic acid. But in a sour dough, if you, during the time that the dough is proving the bacteria break that bond, which means that all the minerals are bioavailable, your body can use them.
>> Claire Gray: Okay?
>> Janice Clyne: And sourdough has got a higher, it's got a lower glycemic index, it's high in resistant starch. Even if you're only making white sourdough, which I wouldn't recommend, I don't just do white, but that's better than brown sourdough, than brown bread out of the supermarket.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: Because everything is Broken down and it's the time that's the thing. What? All the stuff that I promote is the opposite of fast food. It's slow food.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah. Yep.
>> Janice Clyne: Fast food has caused all the problems for people, so we need to get back to basics and actually allow, you know, food, especially fermented food, where we've got, we microorganisms, wee microbes that are doing a job, but you need to allow them the time to do it.
>> Claire Gray: Sure. And that's where food should do the job it's supposed to do. And it should be nourishing our body rather than just be a quick fix. It's actually end up as doing lots and lots of damage.
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely right.
What's the difference between prebiotics and probiotics
>> Claire Gray: Can we go back just to explain something? If you don't. Cause it's something I always get confused. What's the difference between prebiotics and probiotics?
>> Janice Clyne: Yeah, that's a good question. That's one that a lot of people get confused with. Prebiotics is fibre. That's food for the probiotics, which are, the actual bacteria.
>> Claire Gray: Ah.
>> Janice Clyne: So pre. If you think about it, pre means before. So pre is the food. And probiotics are all the wee microbes.
>> Claire Gray: That are created from the prebiotics.
>> Janice Clyne: And what prebiotics are, there's tonnes of them. It's literally fibre. All the fruits, all the vegetables, all the nuts, all the seeds, all the herbs, all the whole grains, they're all prebiotic. so you don't have to go and get a specific prebiotic supplement, just eat more fibre and real food.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you about. So if you feed your body with all the right prebiotics, as you said, the nuts and the seeds and the plants there, your body will then create its own probiotics to keep you healthy.
>> Janice Clyne: Well, what will happen is the probiotics that are there will have a food source. A very interesting thing, actually, just to say in that very thing. there's two friends of mine, they're known as the microbiome Medics. They're two lifestyle doctors. I was on their podcast. They've actually, their stuff is incredible. I was in their podcast last year and they brought to my attention a study that was done comparing people that were just eating more fibre and people that were eating more fermented foods.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: And what they were looking at was the levels of inflammation in their body. You can measure that as well. C reactive protein. And they were looking at the diversity of the gut microbiome as well. So what they found was the first group, and There was about 60 in each group, so it was quite a big study. the first group were just eating, say, maybe nine portions of fibre, so they were having up their fibre amount in their diet. And the other group were having to eat six or seven portions of fermented food a day, which sounds a lot, but it's not really. If you're having a wee glass of kombucha, you're having some kefir bits of whatever. But anyway, what they discovered at the end, at the month that the group that had eaten the fermented stuff had massive amounts of more diversity in their gut microbiome, and their inflammation levels were literally on the floor, they were so low. As opposed to the ones that had been eating more fibre, they had a bit more diversity in their gut and a bit of a drop in the inflammatory markers. But that just brings home that eating fermented stuff is the fastest way to reestablish a better balance. Because every single fermented food, apart from sourdough, because sourdough, it's the microbes, they do the job. While the dough is proving. When you bake a sourdough in a hot oven, you're going to kill off probiotics because they don't survive high temperatures.
>> Claire Gray: Oh, I see.
>> Janice Clyne: So sourdough doesn't contain live probiotics.
>> Claire Gray: That loses them in the baking process.
>> Janice Clyne: That's why you don't really tend to cook with fermented foods, like, you know, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir stuff. If you have it raw, you're getting the benefit of all those live bits.
>> Claire Gray: So as soon as. If you heated it up. So one of my things, I did one of my big swaps to help my gut health. And I had sorts of gut problems before I started eating fermented foods, but was I changed my coleslaw addiction, which obviously was full of a lot of crap from the supermarkets. Lots of sugar. I exchanged that for kimchi and I make my own kimchi at home. And for me, that's a game changer.
>> Janice Clyne: That's a brilliant swap, you know, and.
>> Claire Gray: It’s simple little swaps, so can make a massive difference, can't they?
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely right. And that is the thing, okay? I mean, I'm obsessed by fermenting stuff. I've been eating and drinking fermented stuff. I even put it in my skin, as I've said, I usually wear it. I usually have my fuel before me, but not today. But, you know, it just makes you feel so good. You're like why would you not do it? Oh, I know. And the thing is, as I said, when I started with the fermented stuff, it was more the health benefits. But then I'm somebody who just. I just love to eat. I just love food. And it was the flavour of all the foods. I was like, I can't believe how delicious these foods actually are.
>> Claire Gray: And they satiate you, don't they? You know, like a lot of m this week. I've had a bad week this week because I was had a full on weekend. So I've suffered this week I've been tired and I've reached for quick convenience foods and they just don't taste tastes the same.
>> Janice Clyne: No. But do you know, the thing is, for me, as quick food, I've got a fridge full of all sorts of different colours of ferments. I've always got sourdough or rye sourdough in the freezer, sliced up. I've always got dip of the day. I mean, I make beetroot, walnut dip or whatever hummus I've got. It's still wild garlic season, so I'm mainlining my wild garlic so I can put together a really fast snack, you know, really fast. And it's still really healthy. So I just spend half my life feeling incredibly smug.
>> Claire Gray: You should, you should. I really do. I felt smug until I've sat down with it. Because you take it to a whole new level, Janice, which is amazing.
Foraging is one of your big things, isn't it
I mean, I do believe in whole foods and making things from scratch, but foraging is one of your big things, isn't it?
>> Janice Clyne: Oh, I do love it.
>> Claire Gray: Tell us about that.
>> Janice Clyne: well, I'm actually now a member of the foraging association. Yeah, right. Okay, so I do. But again, we actually, we evolved with plants, with wild plants. We actually have receptors on our cells for compounds that are only found in wild plants. So it's obvious that we were meant to have them. Most of the drugs are, derived from plants and it's an incred food source. And to go back to that diversity thing, okay, a lot of people go to the supermarket and they buy the same stuff all the time. Spinach, broccoli, carrots, potatoes, onions. And people will say to me quite often, oh, I've got a really healthy diet. And I'm like, well, what do you eat? And, oh, I eat vegetables. If you eat the same ones, all you're doing is feeding a really small subset of these trillions of gut bacteria. You start to introduce wild food and you are going to. You totally change that because there's A. A forager called Mo Wild, who wrote a book last year, she survived for a year on wild food only. Well, I couldn't have done it. but anyway, my friend Vicky has also done it for a month. Quite a lot of the foraging community have done it, because I couldn't because I don't eat meat. But anyway. Well, I do eat fish every now and again. But, I could actually survive for a month and only fermented food. I could do that.
>> Claire Gray: Could you?
>> Janice Clyne: Yes, I could do that because that's like wine and you've got cheese, you've got sourdough cheese and wine.
>> Claire Gray: What else?
>> Janice Clyne: That's easy. But to go back to the wild stuff that it just. It's the diversity that you get. I mean, I eat all the weeds in my garden. My wee motto is, if you can't beat them, eat them. Right.
Eat seasonal food and get some forage food. That's the other thing, because, again, it's diversity
>> Claire Gray: Tell me about your dandelions, please.
>> Janice Clyne: Well, dandelions, I do love a dandelion. I'd leave them all in the garden. They're an early food source for the bees. dandelion petals, totally edible. I make a lovely sauerkraut with the dandelion petals and mustard seeds. I make a dandelion chutney, which is totally delicious with ginger and goji berries and onions. I do all sorts of different kimchi and things. I've got tonnes of stuff in the garden. And the cool thing is the wild stuff just grows, of course. And see, if you eat things like nettles, dandelions, all the wild sorrel and stuff, these plants, if you cut them down, they just come straight back up again. So you start to eat them, you get that resilience because it's like your immune system. You know, some people get every single bug that's going, every virus, every bacteria that's doing the rounds. I never get anything. And if I do, I'll bounce back really fast because I've got that resilience because I've got these trillions of beneficial gut bacteria.
>> Claire Gray: And then there's this whole thing we spoke to Julie Hansen a couple of weeks ago about eating in season. So you're doing that automatically?
>> Janice Clyne: Absolutely. That's the other thing, because, again, it's to bring in that diversity. I mean, I grew up in Wishaw, right, and we were near the Clyde Valley, so used to go, you get strawberries and raspberries, you used to go and pick them, but only in the summer. And they were absolutely delicious.
>> Claire Gray: They tasted like strawberries and raspberries.
>> Janice Clyne: But now what's the happened is Everybody has quite a narrow range of foods that they actually eat.
>> Claire Gray: Yeah.
>> Janice Clyne: So we have to be eating way more and a really good way to do that is eat seasonal food and get some forage food. But I have to say, I mean don't just go out and randomly start picking things and eating it. You have to know what you're doing.
>> Claire Gray: You've got to know. Right. I have. I'm going to face up, do you know, because I have a mushroom, phobia. I know it's one of your most favourite foods.
>> Janice Clyne: Oh, I do love a mushroom but.
>> Claire Gray: I always say mushrooms kill people. If you don't get the right mushroom you could end up dead. But yeah, you're a fan of that.
What three things would you recommend for listeners if they wanted to get started on fermented foods
And the other thing that I saw you did the other week, which blew my mind and you mentioned it there, you made a cake or bread out of nettles.
>> Janice Clyne: Oh yeah, that's delicious. A nettle and lemon loaf. Yeah. Because again, okay, nettles can taste a bit nettley but if you put lemon in with them it kind of balances it out and it's the most amazing green colour nettle pesto that's totally delicious as well. So nettle pesto, dry nettle leaves. Because nettle tea is fantastic. I forage all my own so I make all my own teas. So I dry all my own herbs. I've got lemon balm, I've got mint at home I dry out all the rose petals, different flowers and I make my own little teas up. but it's funny because people go to the shops and buy like nettle tea bags but it's just the same. Just if you've got nettles in your garden, as long as they haven't been sprayed with anything. And my garden's just totally wild so nothing gets sprayed with anything in my garden. So I just go out and pick all the beads. I made a delicious soup the other day actually and I thought I'll go and see what green stuff I have. I had wild garlic, ground elder which most gardeners hate because it grows like mad but it's actually quite a delicious and an edible thing. So ground elder, I've got three cornered leeks. I've got a wild bit in the garden, loads of them, cut them up, add sorrel. I had some dandelions, some nettles, lovage which is growing.
>> Claire Gray: What's lovage?
>> Janice Clyne: That's a very old fashioned thing. You don't really get that much anymore. It tastes a bit like aniseedy celery. And it's incredible because you can use it as hollow stem. So if you're making, like yourself a wee Bloody Mary cocktail, you can stick that in and use it as a wee straw and it gives you the flavour of the aniseed. Aniseed. But it's incredible for your health. And again, it's that diversity thing. All these wild green things have got way more nutrition than a bag of spinach out the supermarket. And they all taste different and you blend them all up together. I'm a big fan of coconut as well, so I usually add coconut to things because some. Some greens can be quite bitter. Dandelions, for example. Dandelion leaves are really bitter, so I don't use loads of them. I tend to add a few. So you're still getting the benefit, but it's not overpowering something, because people don't generally like bitter foods, but these are really important for our liver and our detoxification processes.
>> Claire Gray: Brilliant. Right. Well, obviously we're not all like you. Unfortunately, we don't maybe don't all have the garden and access to it. I certainly. And a lot of people. People don't have. Won't have the knowledge that you've got Janice, which is incredible. I could actually sit and listen to you and learn from you all day long. Rapidly. Try to take notes here. But say, people, what three things would you recommend for listeners if they wanted to get started on fermented foods? What three things would you recommend that they do to make it easy for them?
>> Janice Clyne: Well, I do actually have a YouTube channel that, you can subscribe to for free and I've got quite a lot of different ideas on that. What I would say we're coming into the summer now. Try tomato Fermented tomato salad salsa. It's absolutely delicious. It is so delicious. And it's using all the, you know, seasonal tomatoes and peppers and red onion and garlic, lime, ginger. So that's got loads of diversity points in it.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: But you just leave it at room temperature for a few days to start to ferment and then you get that beautiful zingy, fermenty flavour and a shed load of probiotics in it.
>> Claire Gray: Amazing.
>> Janice Clyne: And what you can do with that is you can also add it to avocado and mash it up and you've got like a. A probiotic salsa.
>> Claire Gray: Right. And that recipe's on your YouTube channel.
>> Janice Clyne: It's on the YouTube channel. The other thing you can do is carrots. Carrots are dead easy. I made like carrot Kraut which is fantastic stuff. Literally, it's a kilogramme of grated carrots. you have to.
Getting the salt right is really important when you're fermenting anything
Getting the salt right is really important when you're fermenting anything.
>> Claire Gray: People are. Sorry to interrupt because I meant to ask you that earlier on. People are scared about the sugar to come out from the salt.
>> Janice Clyne: Let me explain a bit about that, because that's one of the key things. Things. The salt is what actually preserves things. So if you're making any vegetable ferment the salt, you have to add the right level of salt because all the veg are covered with these wee Lactobacillus bacteria. These are like the wee tough guys of the bacterial world. They are the only ones that can survive in the salt level that we're going to add. So all the pathogenic bacteria, the E. Coli, salmonella, they can't survive in the salt brine. So fermenting anything is the safest way to preserve it. and you end up with something healthier than you started with. So it's quite magical. But what you need to do is you have to weigh your vegetables. So if you're making sauerkraut and you've got a kilogramme of shredded cabbage, you need to add 2%. The safe level is between 1 and a half and 2 and a half percent of the weight of your vegetables. But it's easier. Go for the midline. So work out 2%. So that's 20 grammes, which is literally a tablespoon for a kilogramme of vegetables. And that's how you go with it. Or you can do brined vegetables. And again, just check out, the YouTube because there's loads of fermented radish bombs and stuff.
>> Claire Gray: Right. I have tried your radish bombs and they're blooming amazing. So just to say, can you tell we'll give your YouTube channel at the end. But sorry, going back to the three things that you would recommend are, your. The tomato salsa is a good way to get started and easy for people to try.
>> Janice Clyne: Definitely.
>> Claire Gray: This carrot kraut, that's really easy.
>> Janice Clyne: And another one actually that I would never be without is actually fermented garlic.
>> Claire Gray: Ooh.
>> Janice Clyne: If you like garlic, you will absolutely love fermented garlic. And that's quite. Well, it's not. When I say it's easy, it's not easy. You quite a while to peel all the garlic cloves, but just pour yourself a glass of wine, get a coffee, whatever, put some nice music on. What you need to do to do that is just get a glass jar, a glass clip top jar. Try and buy organic garlic if you can, because, a lot of the garlic gets irradiated and it doesn't have the proper bacteria on it. Okay. So if you can get organic garlic, peel all the cloves, put them in a jar. You can put some bay leaves, some black peppercorns if you like. And what you do with that then is you make up a brine. So you dissolve 20 grammes of salt, preferably Himalayan, not table salt, in a litre of water. Make sure it's dissolved, pour it over the garlic cloves, weigh it down with something, clip it shut, and just leave it to ferment. I leave my fermented garlic for months in the cupboard to ferment. That goes into all of my dips, all of my dressings. and what happens is when you ferment it, it becomes a lot more mellow. Cause, see, if you like garlic, but if you add raw garlic to things, it really lingers on your breath. But when you ferment it, it does.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: And it's fantastic to add to dips and dressings and stuff.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: You know, whatever you're having, you just add it and see.
Janice Nourishedbynature has a wellness hub on YouTube
>> Claire Gray: Well, Janice, do you want to see now what your YouTube channel is? Because I highly recommend this. I have learned so much from Janice. As you can hear, she's a wealth of information, but I've learned a lot. So it's so accessible to go onto her YouTube channel. My favorite's your fermented potato wedges. But you'll find them. You'll find them on the edge.
>> Janice Clyne: They're a game changer.
>> Claire Gray: I know. So where can we find you? On YouTube, right?
>> Janice Clyne: You can find me on YouTube. I think it's Janice Nourishedbynature.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: M. And I'm also on Instagram at, benourishedbynature.
>> Claire Gray: Yep.
>> Janice Clyne: I'm on Facebook at, nourishedbynature uk.
>> Claire Gray: Okay.
>> Janice Clyne: I have a wellness hub, which is an online thing. You've got 230 members, all just people trying to find their best way in their life. And it's quite incredible the transformations that we've had with that.
>> Claire Gray: Tell me what you do, what you give people in the wellness Hub.
>> Janice Clyne: In the Wellness Hub. Well, it's essentially you join as a, It's like living in my house because I essentially just. We've got a specifics Facebook group, a website full of recipes, resources. We have different themes every month. This month, we're looking at fat and all the misinformation around fat, how it works in your body, how you get rid of it, how the best foods for, you know, fats for cooking. So it's fantastic fun. But we've only got three men, which is quite funny. We get 230, mostly women. But again, it's all just people trying to do one step at a time to find better health.
>> Claire Gray: Sure. And you're a great advert, for it. Thank you so much, Janice. I say I could talk to you.
>> Janice Clyne: Forever about this, but absolutely. Pleasure.
>> Claire Gray: That's lots of great info there. Thank you.
>> Janice Clyne: Okay, take care.
>> Claire Gray: Thanks so much for joining us on Skin and Within, where I help you find your inner glow. Stay tuned for more conversations and wellness wisdom for a healthier, happier you.
This episode was brought to you by Ermana Natural Skincare
Next time, I'm joined by Diana dynamic coaching duo Artie Joshi and Sharon Stephen who talked to me about the techniques they employ to help build confidence and self love. Thank you for listening and please share the podcast onward to anyone you think would benefit from it. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe M this episode was brought to you by Ermana Natural Skincare. For more information go to hermanna.co.uk and follow at Ermana Skincare on Instagram. See you next time from the Big Light Studio.